Vigilantes
by Thats My Name
Summary: :"What's the point of us patrolling if Batman beats us to everything?": A glimpse into Dick and Artemis' life as Gothams newest heroes. Traught


_This is an idea I've been playing with for a while. Basically, when Artemis and Dick first start heroing on their own, they work together as a team. I don't know, its completely plotless and it ends in fluff. Lots of traught, because I've given up on spitfire at this point._

_I own nothing, only a laptop and a fanfiction account._

* * *

"What's the point of us patrolling if Batman beats us to everything?" Artemis asks, crossing her arms and glaring down at the unconscious gang member, tied up at her feet. She looks over at Dick, who looks equally bothered.

"He said he was tracking Two-Face tonight," Dick says. He pokes the shoulder of a black-haired man with his boot and watches his head flop to the side. "I thought we might get a little action."

Artemis laughs, a little bitterly. "He does it on purpose. Probably just to mess with us." They turn around and Robin shoots his grappling hook. It catches on a fire escape of the run-down apartment building. He wraps his arm around her waist and starts to pull them up, wind blowing their hair back and whistling in their ears. Artemis rolls her eyes when they reach the roof and their feet are planted firmly on the ground.

"I have my own way to get up," she says, gesturing to her quiver of arrows. "You don't have to carry me."

"I know," Nightwing gives a wicked grin, but doesn't elaborate. Instead, he walks past her, his hand brushing against her hip before he jumps over the edge and disappears. Artemis sighs at his theatrics. She steps up onto the parapet, lines an arrow along the string and shoots, a rope trailing behind it. She throws her bow over the top and jumps, her blonde ponytail whipping behind her as she zip lines across the open air.

She swings herself on top of the building and jogs over to where Dick is crouched, binoculars covering his black domino mask. Artemis crouches beside him and pulls another arrow from her quiver, fitting it in place. "See something?"

"Big warehouse at eight o' clock." He whispers back. "Top window, third from the left."

Artemis follows his gaze and sees a soft light filling the window. She can see three men from her vantage point. They appear to be seated around a table, but Artemis couldn't make out much else. She places her bow down and holds out her hand. Nightwing wordlessly places the binoculars in her open palm. She zooms in and looks at the scene again. One figure is obscured by a poorly closed shade, and another is facing away from the window, but she has a good profile of the third. She instantly recognizes him as one notorious Neil Daniels.

Daniels is a Government official who involved himself with some shady people. It was a conspiracy that he was part of an international arms deal that the Gotham Police Force had been trying to bust for months now. Artemis and Nightwing had tried to find something to peg on him. After weeks of stake outs and detective work, they were forced to move on to more pressing matters. It was one of their first defeats as partners.

Artemis stuck a microphone onto the end of her arrow and pulled back the string. She loosened her fingers and let the arrow fly, hitting its mark just below the window sill. Dick pulled a speaker out of his belt and turned up the volume.

"_-after last week, the shipment might not even make it through," _ a gruff voice rang through the speakers.

"_Another screw-up like that, Sanders, and the boss will have our heads."_

"_But it wasn't a total screw-up. We only had to change the location to Pier 9, and now we know tha-"_

"_Wait, what was that?"_

"_What?"_

"_I think I just heard- there it is again!"_

Dick groaned loudly, throwing his head back. "He beat us again."

"Maybe not," Artemis says, straightening and loading another arrow. She shot the arrow straight through the window, where it let out a thick green gas.

Shouts could be heard from the speaker as Robin jumped off the roof again, his grappling hook already aimed for the window. Artemis followed him and sent another arrow towards the sill where it stuck into the rotting wood. Both heroes flew through the window into the gas that was slowly clearing to see Batman just finishing tying up Daniels, his two accomplice's unconscious on the dirty floor.

"Come on, Batman!" Dick whines, sounding like a four year old boy, crossing his arms. "You have to leave _something_ for us to do." Artemis does a quick walk around the perimeter of the room, casing the room for any additional evidence

"I did leave something for you," Batman says in his deep, hard voice. "You have the proof."

"Sure, sure," Artemis says, stopping beside Dick. "You do the fun stuff and leave the real work for us to handle. Don't you have some escaped super villain to deal with?"

Dick smirks and lowers his arms. "Unless you happen to need _our_ help with anything. Hmm?"

Batman gives him a small smile that only Dick can bring to his face. His cowl shifts and Artemis thinks he's rolling his eyes. "You guys are getting faster," is all he says before he ducks out the window and disappears.

"I am twenty-two years old. If I'm old enough to get drunk, I think it's about time he let me handle a _real_ villain," Dick says.

Artemis barks out a laugh, just one short _ha_. "That's a really convincing argument you have there. The boy who's old enough to drink whatever the hell he wants should be taking down crazed and armed villains."

"Hey," Dick says, holding his head upwards in a dignified manner. "Not a boy. I'm a man."

She shoves his shoulder and laughs again. "Such a manly man, too." Artemis runs her hand down his chest. "With such great abs," she teases. Dick leans down and presses his forehead against hers, their noses brushing. Artemis' eyes slide shut and she lifts herself on her toes, their lips meeting.

The kiss is short and is interrupted by sirens and blue police lights. They break apart and head for the window, stepping onto the fire escape and disappearing into the night.

* * *

_I might do more on their life together. I have all these headcanons happening in my head and it was good to finally type some of it up. I hope you enjoyed! Please give me feedback!_


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